Modern Mongolia history began in 1206 when Chinggis Khan united the Mongol tribes and embarked on a series of military conquests across Asia and into the Middle-East and Europe. Chinggis’s sons and heirs extended the kingdom in the late-13th century when the Mongols controlled one of the largest empires in history, stretching from present-day northern Vietnam to the Middle-East and Central Europe. By the mid-14th century, however, internal struggles caused the empire to collapse, and by the 17th century the Manchu Qing Empire in China had subjugated all of Mongolia.

After the Chinese revolution of 1911, the northern Mongol princes declared an autonomous Mongolia with Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu, the Living Buddha of Urga /capital city/, as a ruler. In July 1921, Mongolia was proclaimed an independent state, which remained a monarchy until the death of the Living Buddha in 1924. In 1924, with the support of the Soviets, the Mongolian People’s Republic was formed with a centrally planned economy and political system along socialist lines. Beginning in 1989, and corresponding with the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country and the period of glasnost in the Soviet Union, protests for greater democracy began in Ulaanbaatar. As in many East-European countries, these protests led to the fall of the Communist government and the adoption of a democratic political system. The first multi-party elections were held in 1990.